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Parliament was misled over G8 costs: Auditor General

The Conservatives passed off the $50 million G8 Legacy fund as part of an $83 million investment to reduce border congestion when they sought Parliament’s approval for funding, the Auditor General said Thursday.

The Action Plan sign for the G8 Infrastucture Improvements sits behind the The Muskoka Information Centre which received 260,000 dollars, they resurfaced the parking lot, fixed the roof and bathrooms and added handicap access. The auditor general says the Harper government misinformed Parliament to win approval for a $50-million G8 fund that lavished money on dubious projects in a Conservative riding. (STEVE RUSSELL / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Les Whittington and Bruce Campion-SmithOttawa Bureau

Thu., June 9, 2011

OTTAWA—Opposition MPs are vowing to probe whether laws were broken in Tony Clement’s Muskoka G8 spending spree after Ottawa’s financial watchdog revealed Parliament was misled and policies flouted as the Conservatives dished out tens of millions of dollars.

Interim auditor general John Wiersema painted a disturbing picture of Clement and several confidantes hand picking the projects — with no bureaucratic oversight or paperwork — that ultimately got $45.7 million in federal funding.

Deputy NDP leader Thomas Mulcair said it’s obvious that laws controlling decisions on who got federal money may have been broken.

“There’s no doubt whatsoever that there are questions of legality involved,” Mulcair said after the audit findings were released Thursday.

“You’re not allowed to just go off on your own” in deciding federal spending. “You have to follow procedures. It’s public money that’s being spent.”

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Both the NDP and Liberals said a Commons’ committee must follow up with an investigation of the money that flowed into Clement’s Parry Sound-Muskoka riding before last summer’s G8 summit in Huntsville.

“This is a serious abuse of the public money and the public purse,” said interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae.

The auditor general concluded the Conservatives passed off the $50 million G8 Legacy fund as part of an $83 million investment to reduce border congestion when they sought Parliament’s approval for funding.

“This categorization did not clearly or transparently identify the nature of the approval being sought for G8 infrastructure,” the report said.

The Conservatives have come under sharp criticism after revelations that much of that cash meant to spruce up the Huntsville location of the G8 summit went to projects such as gazebos, new sidewalks, outdoor bathrooms and landscaping far from where the world leaders actually met.

Depicting a slush fund without using those words, the audit revealed the projects — more than 200 at first and whittled down to 32 — were hand-picked by a small team of insiders, led by Clement without the usual screening by federal officials.

Officially, it was known as the “2010 G8 Summit Liaison and Implementation Team.” In fact, this “team” was Clement, the mayor of Huntsville and a local business person, according to the audit. Clement was industry minister at the time.

Speaking with reporters, Wiersema said auditors were unable to locate any paper trail for the selection of G8 legacy projects — a “troubling” finding that he said was unprecedented in his 33 years in auditing.

The legacy funding broke several “clear” policies on government spending, he said. And he said the fact that Parliament never knew the true purpose of the cash “was not right.

“Going to Parliament and requesting money for one purpose and using it for something else is a serious matter which we think deserves parliamentary attention

In response, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who had signed off on the G8 legacy projects in his earlier role in charge of infrastructure spending, said the Conservatives had not done anything illegal. He noted the auditors’ own conclusion that they weren’t “aware of any specific law that was violated.”

But Baird said the Conservative government agrees with Wiersema that funding guidelines should be changed to guarantee that MPs have clear information.

A separate auditor general report that examined overall spending for the G8 summit in Huntsville and the G20 in Toronto last summer contained some good news — the bill was $664 million, less than the $1.1 billion originally budgeted.

But it also reveals that $510 million of that went to security. The Toronto police force was to be paid $89 million for helping secure the summit site, the Ontario Provincial Police was to receive $57 million and the RCMP rang up a $30 million overtime bill.

On top of that, the RCMP spent a further $34 million on private security for the G8 alone because of a shortage of police officers.

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